Additive manufacturing (AM) is quickly migrating from a niche technology for rapid prototyping into a bona fide manufacturing process for a variety of applications. One of the main deficiencies preventing AM from being broadly adopted is the lack of tools capable of simulating the physical properties of the printed part. When a single CAD model is printed with different printers, fill patterns, or even print orientation (e.g. part printed upright, upside-down, on its side), the resulting printed part will have significantly different physical properties (e.g. material density, stress/strain properties). In the state of the art, designers print the part in different orientations and different fill patterns and then test the outcomes until the desired specifications are achieved. This is a time consuming process that could be significantly improved if a simple mechanism for predicting these physical properties were available.
All additive manufacturing processes generate bind sites that create a physical lattice. The bind sites are created where the material from one layer gets melted or welded into the material of the previous layer. In the case of metal manufacturing the bind sites are created either by direct heat or laser sintering of the metal powder or the coating of the metal powder. In the case of polymer printing the bind sites connect the filaments of one layer to the next.